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The Inner Chief Podcast

An iTunes #1 Career and Top #5 Business Podcast

The Inner Chief is for leaders, professionals and small business owners who want to accelerate their career and growth. Our guest chiefs and gurus share powerful stories and strategies so you can have for more purpose, influence and impact in your career.

Our chief this week is Peter Finn, CEO and founder of Face Contracting, who provide a range of quality, cost-effective solutions in mining, construction & manufacturing.

After starting out in mining, he has spent time as a publican in regional Australia. Now, Finny is a true Aussie larrikin; a top bloke that I met at a podcasting conference last year. He also hosts ‘Full Production’ THE podcast for the mining industry.

We are going to cover everything from self-development to leading a growing company with a presence around the world.

CONNECT WITH PETER FINN

Points and Quotes from Peter Finn:

A little while ago, Greg, I got a bit lost. As I went through mining – and you came back to my story how I laughed and owned a pub, and all this sort of stuff – a little while ago, about a year ago, I was about to walk away from the mining game altogether. I was just letting the shit people or the shit environment, the tough conditions affect how I felt about it. Then I started to really look internally and ask myself some tough questions around why I'm here. And what can I give, and I think, I say to people who are listening, you walk an old lady across the road. You can't put a price on that, because it's called fulfilment. The more you give, the more you get, so then all of a sudden, the more I can get is the more I can give. I think Steve Irwin said in an interview once that he can't get enough money, because the more money he can get, the more land he'll buy to save the animals.

I think you really need to invest in yourself because you only get one crack at life and I feel very fortunate that I can talk about mining so passionately and there are so many topics we can talk about in mining, from divorce rates, suicide rate, how to improve productions, the efficiency of draw machinery.

People will never remember what you said, but they'll always remember how you made them feel.

And you're gonna look for that purpose. It's very fulfilling when you find it, but it'll only come down to the questions you're prepared to ask yourself. And that's why I say to the listeners and people I talk to regularly, if you're prepared to ask tough questions and answer them honestly, and I mean, break yourself down to a vulnerability point of view, I feel that you'll dig deeper in yourself to get clarity about how you wanna live your life or how you should live your life.

They get too big, this is what I feel, and they can't share their values, and they actually don't live to their values and their values aren't coming from an internal place. They're coming from a corporate world where it says, communication, honesty, integrity, which is all important attributes, but if you really wanna break down what you stand for, you'll notice that they all float through your company because you're able to express your dream and values a lot more efficiently.

People overwater certain parts of their lives. And they overwater their work life and then ultimately their family life or their health suffers. And you can't buy back that time. It's a hard review and a hard reflection of your life, and it's never too late. If you're mid-forties or fifties or whatever stage of life you're at, and you're realising that you're overwatering a certain part of life, pull up, Google something, because there's nothing that you can't find on Google these days, but there's plenty of resources around, but the biggest thing that I say to people, and you know this, Greg. You're not gonna go to a one-off event for four days of Tony Robbins, as much as I love Tony, a four-day event and you see people go there and for the next six weeks, they're just dominating life. They're looking after their health, all of the key areas in life, and then all of a sudden they fall off. So the key word here is being consistent. Being consistent across all fronts of life and make sure you're watering the garden in all areas efficiently. And don't get me wrong, I can't say this and I can't say I'm getting a 100% right. I have a wife, and we have disagreements, and I don't get it right all the time and I over water certain parts of life, but it's a juggling act.

This is a problem we got in Western society today, where people think they're entitled. You should just be grateful that in the human lottery, you were born in Australia or New Zealand, because there are four billion people a day that live on less than $5 a day. When you start practising that stuff daily, that's enough energy to realise how lucky I am to go down to the shop here and buy a bottle of water, Greg. I'm on the walk to work, and back on the question of what I do, is I try and live in that state of appreciation and gratitude to how lucky I am to have a healthy body, physically, mentally and emotionally and look after being the best version of myself and what key areas in my life are important. And trying to get that routine, so wake up in the morning, just to be appreciative that I can get out of a nice comfy bed and I got clothes on my back. Let's start there. And then start wiring up your day, I do have a daily task that I talk about what I'm most grateful for. What are my high-value tasks today? What are my backs jobs? What can I outsource? Who can I help?

Don't rely on their company to do it, or their organisation to do it. Do it off their own back for their own self-worth and own self-benefit. It just scares me, some of the people I see in organisations of how potentially untapped they are from the value they can add, not just to a workplace, but to their own life and the world in general. I'm sure this is what you do, any of you guys who are at this level.

Be present. Get off your phone and have an eye contact conversation with someone. Unfortunately, I see it now, even the people I try and influence in and out from a mine site point of view where we're always sending emails or always sending texts, or maybe on a phone call every now and again. Nothing beats sitting down, having an eye to eye conversation. But I also wanna reiterate, looking at life, and watering all the key areas of life because don't get sucked into the work trap. Don't get sucked into the money trap. If you haven't got your health, which is your mental, physical, emotional health, you haven't got anything. And the only thing you take out of life is the relationships you have in it. You can sit on your deathbed right now, think about all the money you've made, but at the end of the day, the only thing you're gonna take out of this is, “Hey, I had a good relationship with this Greg guy, mum and dad, my sisters, brothers, whoever it might be.” I think Steve Jobs wrote a really powerful letter. I think when Steve Jobs passed away, you'd have to Google it. I have read it a little while ago and the impactful message he leaves around 1) his legacy, but 2), the things that he regretted because you only get one crack at this.

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ABOUT GREG LAYTON

Greg is the Founder of Chief Maker and an Executive Coach who specialises in accelerating the careers of senior managers into C-suite roles. He is the author of Chief Maker –
How to Rise Above the Pack and Get a Seat on the Executive Team and the host of The Inner Chief podcast.